Oksana Masters came into the Milan Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games unsure of what kind of athlete she would be when she reached the start line. She left the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium on Friday, March 7 with the answer: the same dominant one she has always been.
Masters defended her Paralympic title in the women’s 7.5 km Para biathlon sprint sitting with a flawless performance, going 10-for-10 on the shooting range and finishing in 21:21.3 to claim gold, marking her 20th career Paralympic medal and 10th gold across both the Summer and Winter Games. Her U.S. teammate Kendall Gretsch finished 16 seconds back with a time of 21:37.3 to take silver, giving Team USA a 1-2 finish on the podium. Germany’s Anja Wicker earned bronze in 22:32.4 after missing two targets.
The victory was far from a foregone conclusion. Masters had surgery over the summer and dealt with a bone infection and a concussion in the months leading up to the Games, disrupting her typical training schedule. She told Ruth Faulkner in an article posted to the International Paralympic Committee website after the race that she did not expect a podium finish, let alone gold, and that she was simply hoping for a solid performance on the range.
Masters cleaned all five targets in her first shooting stage with a time of 1:11.8, and then went five-for-five again in standing with a 1:15.5, the eighth-fastest shooting split at that stage. While her shooting times were not the fastest in the field—Gretsch posted the quickest prone shooting time at 52.5 seconds—Masters’ combination of clean shooting and superior ski speed proved unbeatable. She held the lead from the first checkpoint to the finish line, never dropping below first place at any split.
On the course, Masters set the pace from the opening kilometer. Her 3:16.1 time to the 1.5 km mark was the fastest in the field, and her 2:28.2 time between the first and second shooting stages also led all competitors. Even after the second shooting stage, where Gretsch briefly pulled within 1.3 seconds of the lead on cumulative time, Masters responded with a 2:29.0 split to the 6.5 km mark, the second-fastest in the field—before pulling away with a finishing section of 2:34.6 that was again the fastest of any competitor.
Gretsch, who also shot a perfect 10-for-10, was the sharper shooter of the two, but could not match Masters’ speed on the snow. Gretsch’s prone shooting time of 52.5 seconds was the fastest in the entire field, and her standing time of 54.9 ranked second. But her ski splits trailed Masters at every checkpoint, and the 16-second gap at the finish reflected the difference in course speed between the two teammates.
The Para biathlon sprint sitting follows the same basic format as Olympic biathlon—athletes ski a set course with stops at the shooting range—adapted for athletes competing in sit-skis. The women’s sprint covers 7.5 km with two shooting stages, one prone and one standing equivalent. Each missed target results in a time penalty or penalty loop, making clean shooting essential.
Masters’ gold in the sprint was the opening chapter of what became a remarkable Milan Cortina campaign. She finished fourth in the Para biathlon individual sitting the following day, narrowly missing the podium—Gretsch took bronze in that event—before crossing into Para cross-country skiing and winning gold in both the women’s sprint sitting and the 10 km interval start sitting. Through four events in Italy, Masters won three gold medals and pushed her career Paralympic medal total to 22, making her the most decorated American Winter Paralympian in history.
Her career spans eight Paralympic Games dating back to London 2012, with medals in four different sports: Para biathlon and Para cross-country skiing in the winter, Para cycling and Para rowing in the summer. Born in Ukraine with birth defects believed to be related to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Masters was adopted by an American mother after spending her early years in Ukrainian orphanages. She had her left leg amputated at age 9 and her right leg at age 14. None of it has slowed her down.
Gretsch’s silver in the sprint and bronze in the individual gave her two medals of her own at Milan Cortina, continuing a partnership with Masters that has produced multiple Team USA podium finishes over the years. As Gretsch told the IPC after the sprint, racing alongside Masters pushes her to be a better athlete every time they line up together.
See the full results from the 2026 Winter Paralympics at olympics.com.
